


Simulation

by golden_hyuckie



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Angst, Heavy Angst, I love them all, M/M, also im sorry i cant write whoops, i dont even know, im so sorry, later tho, oof, prob update tags, this hurts my soul
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-08-24 08:49:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16636745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/golden_hyuckie/pseuds/golden_hyuckie
Summary: A strange text from an orange haired stranger might make Mark want to risk it all in more ways than one.





	Simulation

_Drip, drip, drip._

Mark could hear the water falling slowly from the ceiling and pattering against what sounded like concrete floors. Where it’s coming from he has no idea but figures it has to be close based on the noise it’s making. That’s about all he could get from his surroundings however, his eyes still closed and mind still groggy from whatever _they_ did to him. The mere thought of them, especially of _him_ makes him simultaneously want to vomit and cry his eyes out while punching the nearest object. Violently shoving those memories away, Mark instead decides to raise his head and open his eyes to at least try and establish his situation a little. He’s met with the lovely view of a barely lit but suspiciously clean prison cell. There are iron bars a few feet in front of him and he figures himself to be leaning against the only other object in the cell, a saggy and slightly smelly bed. Mark tries to sit up and move to sit on top of the bed but a sharp pain in his side stops him from completing the motion.

 _Oh man Renjun’s going to kill me for that,_ he thinks.

The thought makes him freeze in place as he’s struck with a sudden panic about the state of his friends and what may have happened to them in his absence. What if they were captured too? What if they’re being tortured at this very moment? They trusted him and now they may be paying the price; he let them down when they were depending on him for everything. _Well I really fucked up this time. I swear if we all make it out of this I am buying them ice cream for life._

He can’t dwell too long on his thoughts however as solitary footsteps start to sound along the outside corridor, stopping right outside his cell. Mark closes his eyes and hopes to any deity out there that it isn’t who he thinks it is. After a minute of long silence with neither person making any move to do anything, he figures he may as well get it over with and make the first move. Gritting his teeth Mark looks up and immediately regrets it as he’s met with the face that’s been haunting his dreams for so long. That face belonging to someone who was once so familiar, who now looks cold and foreign with a cruel sneer across his face and contempt leaking from every pore.   

Mark laughs.

He just completely loses it, the sound of his giggles filling the building. He’s cold, hungry, and way too tired to deal with this shit right now. There’s so many emotions running through him that he’s half convinced he’s going to explode from the force. His very soul is screaming in pain at the presence but he was always good at shoving his emotions away. He likes to think it’s a personal talent. The person outside never moves a muscle throughout this exchange, continually staring down at him with that permanent sneer. Mark sighs and deigns to close his eyes to try and ignore him instead, alternatively thinking back to how he even got in this situation when his life was perfectly fine before thank you very much. He chuckles to himself, _Well that’s kind of a lie but whatever that’s what I’m going to go with._

—

The sun was bright that fine August morning, the last dregs of summer moving sluggishly onwards. Mark had woken up to his alarm clock blaring away on the nightstand and letting him know it was time to get up for school. Unlike most people, Mark actually liked school. He loved his friends there and was doing well in most of his subjects while also being the captain of the basketball team. He liked to think he was pretty popular around the school, managing to have at least a couple friends that he was comfortable with in all of his classes. His core crew however consisted of Huang Renjun, the slightly nerdy but damn amazing painter, Lee Jeno, sweetheart with insane brains, Na Jaemin, all around flirt and an amazing class president, Zhong Chenle, literally the loudest person ever but will kick your ass at anything music related, and finally Park Jisung, the youngest of all of them yet already a dance legend. Mark smiled warmly thinking of his friends before the alarm clock blared a second time yanking him out of his thoughts. He sighed and flopped out of bed to get ready for the day.

Ten minutes later and toast in hand, Mark waved bye to his mom before leaving the house to go pick up Jaemin. They both lived on the same street so Mark would pick him up and drive them to school and back. It was actually one of his favorite parts of the day because Jaemin almost always had a new entertaining story to tell as well as a coffee waiting for him, alleviating his morning zombieness. Today was no different, Mark pulling up to Jaemin's driveway and waving bye to Mrs. Na before eagerly accepting his latte and driving off.

Mark smiled as Jaemin started humming softly, an indication that he was choosing which story to say first.

”You know Mark hyung," Jaemin starts, "I heard yesterday in the hallway that Mr. Jung's calculus test was going to be really hard today. Even Jeno said he struggled with it and he never struggles with anything."

Mark grins deviously and whispers, ".. whipped," getting a slap on the arm in response but then laughing at Jaemin's tomato face. His smile fell as he realized the rest of Jaemin's sentence though.

"But wait what calculus test??" This time Jaemin took the chance to laugh at him before explaining.

"Seriously hyung? It's the same one he's been talking about for literally three weeks. He even wrote it five times on the board and emailed us about it."

"Oh my god no. No no no no there is no possible way that is today, nope I refuse to believe it," Mark said with a little bit of desperation.

Jaemin's grin got wider and he popped a big, "Yep. That's what happens when you're asleep in class hyung."

"Not on purpose!! I had a game the night before dummy. Plus you're one to talk, the only reason you’re awake is to stare at Jeno during class Captain Obvious."

Jaemin gasped and pouted, "Don't attack me like that it's not my fault he's pretty."

By this time they had made it to school and Mark performed the quickest parking job of his life before rushing to the cafeteria where the others were. His hopes were balanced precariously on whether Jeno or Renjun would agree to alleviate his calculus induced confusion. He got to the table out of breath and wheezed out, "Someone please help me I'm going to die."

Jeno and Chenle both looked up while Renjun continued painting something or another and Jisung merely replied, "Yeah we know hyung, you're like ancient already."

The whole table broke out in laughter, Mark pouting and claiming that, "I'm not even that old Park Jisung you little brat."

"Sure hyung, you keep telling yourself that."

"Anyway, moving on, Jeno or Renjun or even better how about both of you please please please help me with calculus. I swear Mr. Jung's tests are the hardest things ever."

Jeno and Renjun looked at each other and shrugged before Renjun asked with a smirk, "What's in it for us?"

"Yeah dude I want payment for these amazing services," Jeno added.

"Anything, anything you want I swear to it!!" Mark cried.

Simultaneously they both said, "Ice cream for two days or no deal."

"Deal oh my god please help me."

And thus was a typical start to Mark's day, laughing with his friends and going to all his classes. He ended up passing his calculus test, thanks to Jeno and Renjun’s speed tutoring, and got to listen to a new song Chenle was working on afterschool. Later he simply went home after dropping Jaemin off, finished his homework, and binge watched a show Jisung had recommended on Netflix.

Life seemed to be going pretty smoothly for once.

So of course that’s when everything just had to go downhill, starting with the text from an intriguing stranger.

**Author's Note:**

> hi so i dont really know what this is but we'll see what happens :)) oof sorry this was so short too sksksjfj i tried
> 
> comments and criticism are greatly appreciated mwah thank u
> 
> also have a great day in case you haven't heard it today!!


End file.
